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Harm reduction lost, you happy? [1]

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Date: 2025-04-10

You won, harm reduction lost… happy?

Elections have consequences, another phrase that is often misunderstood. After the 2024 elections a lot of people were elated, that VP Harris lost, because it was their reward for withholding their votes or voting 3rd party. The problem is elections are not a sporting event, you can’t sleep off a bad election and get up the next day as if nothing happened. Elections shape your day-to-day lives.

Fighting maga was hard enough, but fighting so called good people who refused to see what their attitudes would lead to for the very people they claimed they wanted to help, was exhausting. Common sense seemed to have fled their minds all together. Harm reduction became a dirty word, and the base became the villain of the story, more reviled even than the GOP. And yet you wonder why Black folks are stepping back, don’t wonder, simply revisit the vitriol that was poured onto us, not only before the elections but right after we lost.

So, what is harm reduction and why is it necessary in an electoral system like the one the US has. Let’s say you’re on a path and you come to a fork in the road, one is an ice river, the other a raging wildfire, which road do you take? I know, I know people will be screaming 3rd party, but your system is not set up for a 3rd party to win. Until you abolish the electoral system one cannot win. Ross Perot got 19% of the popular vote and ZERO electoral votes.

See, better does not equate to best. But when you can’t reach best you choose better.

This article matters little now, but I wanted enough time to have passed so that maybe in the next elections better choices would be made. Also please people get involved in your local elections.

The road to eliminating the electoral college, redistricting and all those obstacles to every vote counts, is so long because a lot of you do not understand how your very own system works and how to work to change it. So you have dragged things on to this point right now.

Lots of you think it’s some kind of flex and moral high ground when you say “Oh you wanted us to vote for Harris just because she wasn’t chump” that is a lie, but for discussion purposes let’s say even if that was true… so what? If that was the sole reason to vote for her, it should still have been beyond sufficient! Because you knew what the alternative was. I’m of Haitian descent, can’t stand the Clintons, but voting for Hilary was harm reduction.

When there are no angels around, the lesser of two evils is a moral choice. How many times do you have to hear the phrase that neutrality is complicity? Hmm? It’s a false excuse, you knew withholding your vote or voting for an unwinnable party was in effect the same as voting for chump, not only that you knew his plans, you still did it. You helped him win. Period.

The only time you can ride on your personal likes and dislikes is during primaries, once those are done and a candidate chosen, again until the electoral system is abolished, you vote for harm reduction! It is not rocket science.

Harm reduction is the only path to a more or less stable country, stability provides consistency, consistency improves economy, a good economy reduces crimes, reduced crimes improve living conditions, good living conditions make for happier citizens, happier citizens are more likely to want others to be happy so fight for the right of others to be happy.

The problem is you don’t want to be happy or even the good guys, you want to be right, you want to own the libs/dems as much as maga does. You want your gotchas and crowing moments. Well, you have them now… you owned us, you beat us… and now what?

#ThePoet

Muriel Vieux – April 10th, 2025, ©All rights reserved

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